One of the buzzwords I dislike is “Corporate Responsibility”. It is overused, abused and never means what it is supposed to when you hear it from the top managers. However, it is important. Rather, the concept that it used to mean is important.
I spent a few months in Russia now and I am shocked and disgusted at how business is done there. That is the place where you go if you want to learn what the consequences of irresponsibility on a grand scale are.
Nobody feels responsible for anything there. The only king of this newly capitalistic country is money. Everybody dreams of making money quick. Some people make the money quick. Some don’t. But for everyone the main theme remains – just make money, no matter how, no matter what the consequences are, never mind the “after”.
What is the result? Well, most, or, perhaps, all of the business is based on making or buying something dirt cheap and selling it high. Most products are made in China or are counterfeit. Everything is made of the cheapest materials and with the cheapest technologies.
Can you imagine the life in a disposable world? Disposable furniture, disposable cars, disposable roads, disposable buildings, clothes, everything. Food is mostly dangerous for health, as is water and air. Every service you get is done as if you are a really annoying beggar, not a paying customer. All products you buy start falling apart as soon as unwrapped.
And it really matters nothing if you have a little or a lot of money. What you buy with a lot of money is still counterfeit and the same horrifying quality. There is no way to buy for yourself a higher life level, unless you ship everything you need from abroad, like some rich people there do – they just fly all their food and necessities from Germany.
And this is the result of one thing – corporate irresponsibility. Yes, they make money, a lot of it. But, when everyone provides shit to everyone else, what help is all that money?